Morning Links: ‘Rehearsals for Revolution’ Edition

International art dealer Guy Wildenstein has been cleared of charges of tax fraud by French authorities. [BBC]

In 1969, Italy created the world’s first specialized police force to combat art crimes. Today, 280 investigators work to protect Italy’s cultural heritage. This is their story. [NPR]

Chitra Ganesh, quoting the dearly departed John Berger, on the performative nature of protest: “The truth is that mass demonstrations are rehearsals for revolution: not strategic or even tactical ones, but rehearsals of revolutionary awareness.” [Artforum]

Museum Buzz

Ambitious plans for a new modern and contemporary wing at the Met have met with an uncertain fate as financial issues at the museum have pushed the $600-million initiative into a holding pattern. [New York Times]

The Miami-Dade North Arts and Humanities Foundation recently received $100,000 to establish a Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora. [Miami Herald]

Art in California

The biggest iteration yet of the L.A. Art Show opened last night, with an additional 150,000 square feet of space. [Los Angeles Times]

A guide to San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, which the New York Times is labeling America’s “next great” arts district. [New York Times]

Relational Aesthetics

A short work of fiction by the artist Liam Gillick on the desire to “account for everything and the need to create a new series of equations that could rebalance relations between objects and objects as well as objects and people.” [e-flux]

Billy Eichner keeps on asking the important questions: Can you separate the art from the artist? [Funny or Die]